The Yecai Society
by helium lost
Summary: [OCs] There exists a secret society… the Yecai Society. Once good, the war tainted its name, driving it underground. And it’s this society that seeks to capture Katara to lure in Aang, so that the… wait, so that the CABBAGE MAN can kill him? What?
1. Beginning, History, Plans

**The _Yecai_ Society**  
. helium lost .

**Author's Notes:** It's a crack!fic. My apologies in advance. XD I don't know what hit me to write this—probably the fact that my mom took me and my brother to Souplantation for lunch this afternoon, and as I was looking down at the cabbage in the salad, I was thinking, "Hey, wouldn't it be great if there were more secret societies in Avatar, just like the Pai-sho one, only concentrated around different things? Like… say… _cabbage_?"

So here you go. Another take on the Ye Olde Capture Plotte, but wilder than you could ever imagine. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter One  
**_Beginning; History; Plans  
_

* * *

He had let this go on for far too long.

As he fell to his knees, cradling his fallen cabbages, a lump rose in his throat as he took in their dirtied, crumpled forms, the way they laid lifelessly on their sides, the way their leaves hung, limp, bruised, and battered… First, the shock consumed him; then came the wave of realization and, finally, the crashing, thundering tsunami of irrepressible anger.

The boy's head popped out from amidst the carnage. He waved hesitantly, then said, with a nervous laugh tinting his voice, "Two cabbages, please?"

The cabbage merchant stood, fury filling every cell of his body. He clenched his fists at his side, trembling, as the blood rushed to his face and made his tanned skin a brilliant shade of crimson. He pointed a shaking finger at the boy, then shouted, "_Get away from my cabbages!_"

The boy was smart enough to jump up and dash away, faster than a speeding arrow. The girl remained, trying to apologize for her friend's behavior, but the cabbage merchant took no regard of her words and pushed her away, cursing the whole time. The one he assumed to be her brother had already left long ago, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "damn vegetables"—which only served to make the cabbage merchant even _more_ spitting mad. He hated people like that the most—people who didn't understand the beauty, the _valor_ of fruits and vegetables, their majesty, their—

The claw of an ostrich-horse trampled over a stray head of cabbage, and the cabbage merchant was brought back to his senses. He looked up and saw the retreating figure of a teenager dressed in shabby clothes, with a large scar covering his left eye. But what enraged the cabbage merchant even more—if it was even possible—was the way that the teen spared no look behind him. He probably wasn't even aware of the fact that he'd just crushed a valuable, nutritious being—no, more than a being; more like… a saint.

Muttering curses under his breath, the cabbage merchant bent over to pick up the remaining heads that were still fine, piling them back up onto his cart. As he did so, another surly teenager, chewing a stalk of hay, walked by, kicking the cabbage heads out of his way, paying no attention to the slaving merchant.

Letting out a scream of frustration, the cabbage man grabbed the handles of his cart and jerked it up off its stand, then walked the streets of Ba Sing Sei in long, quick strides as the wheels of the cart turned, squeaking, behind him. He rounded corners and traversed through winding alleys before finally reaching his destination. He knocked impatiently at the door and crossed his arms, letting the cart drop behind him, and tapped his foot, waiting for the door to open.

When it finally did, he looked around quickly to make sure that he hadn't been followed, and said in a low voice… "It's time."

* * *

The _Yecai_ Society had a long history behind it: It had been formed almost five hundred years ago, mainly as a relief effort to help the malnourished and bring health and happiness back into their lives. Their first big success had been when they had ridded the Water Tribes' sailors of scurvy, something from which they were prone to suffer on their big voyages. After all, fruit was hard enough to grow in those arctic climates—what with their freezing cold, lack of rainfall, and lack of harvestable ground—so it had to be imported from the Earth Kingdom. Expenses began to take their toll, and the Water Tribes' usual methods of preserving food—freezing it until it was barely recognizable as anything more than a block of ice—didn't work so well with the fruit, destroying them and sapping any remaining nutrition from them.

Taking it on a long voyage was, therefore, impossible.

It was ironic that the Water Tribes, who were, naturally, masters of water—weren't masters of the sea, seeing how all their forces were falling sick to disease. Even the Air Nomads could command a better navy than they, and _they_ hadn't seen a body of water larger than a pond! And despite the fact that water was the opposite element of firebenders, they commanded a strong navy; although their firebending skills weakened somewhat with all the water around them (the sun still influenced their abilities more, though), they were still able to pilot long expeditions due to the abundant spices in their lands that made preserving fruits like bell peppers possible.

Both out of health concerns for her people and a secret shame shared by all waterbenders for not being able to command their own element, Princess Ankang of the Northern Water Tribe managed to fund a project to search for a remedy to this problem. Sending messengers across the world, she asked for anyone who could have a solution—both practical and affordable—to step up and tell the Northern Water Tribe about it. In return, they would give the creator of the best solution a generous reward and a place of honor at the palace.

Naturally, there was a huge scramble to be the one to come up with a solution. Most people wanted the generous reward; some wanted the place of honor; and most of the hot-blooded males saw it as a chance to get closer to the princess, who was rumored to be turning sixteen soon (and wasn't turning out too bad, either). Many in the Fire Nation quickly found out that applying their preserving technique worked marvelously, but the costs were outrageously high (exporting spice was costly enough, and exporting fruit _with_ the spice, in addition to covering labor costs, was just out of the question).

Months passed without a good solution coming up, and Princess Ankang was beginning to lose hope as more and more of the sailors died every day.

It was then that the _Yecai_ Society was formed. Founded by poor merchants in the Earth Kingdom, its main purpose was to strike it rich and live a good life afterward; it was intended to be a one-shot deal: gather, find a solution, divide the riches, and disband.

Little did they know that that was not to be the case.

Quickly after pooling together their brainpower—not much in book-smarts, mind, but they had practical wits, and innumerable home remedies that, surprisingly, _worked_—they came up with a solution, so simple that they were astounded that no one had found it earlier. All that had to be done was to prepare the fruits or vegetables in a brine of salt, vinegar, and water—or, even, for fruits that were more watery, just salt. And it wasn't costly, either: being that the Water Tribes lived close to the ocean, salt was inexpensive for them (unlike for the Air Nomads, to whom salt had to be exported; they eventually gave up on salty foods and instead settled for sweeter things, like fruit pies, as sugarcane was relatively easy to obtain from the rainforests dotting their mountains). All they had to do was bend the water out of it and use the lingering minerals; the cost was next to none.

Before anyone else could discover the same process, the _Yecai_ Society pooled together some money to send a letter with the discovery (written in a code known only to waterbenders, provided by their one waterbender member, so that greedy interceptors couldn't understand it) by the fastest messenger hawk. It was an outrageous sum—about a week's worth of wages for each of them—but it was worth it, seeing how they got an excited reply in a couple days' worth of time, asking them to go to the North Pole immediately to show this revolutionary procedure.

Using a flying bison graciously rented by Princess Ankang (the rates charged for flying bison transport were also outrageous, but they, too, were the fastest, and relatively docile), the members of the _Yecai_ Society reached the North Pole within a week. There, they showed the procedure to Princess Ankang, who, in addition to being impressed with the simple yet life-saving procedure, amusedly accepted the smitten waterbender's marriage proposal (she had been too stubborn to accept betrothal necklaces from the local waterbenders, but this waterbender just amused her to no end, what with his sarcasm and all). She soon gave them their reward, as well as ordering for the immediate creation of a plaque to the _Yecai _Society, which was soon hung in the Hall of Heroes.

Life was good for the members of the _Yecai_ Society after that: the reward, even split between the original seven members (waterbender included), was enough for them to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, seeing how they lived fairly humble lives, being merchants and all, and seeing how they rarely spent money on extravagant but useless things.

They never intended on meeting again, but fate conspired against them.

Now that they had enough money, the members were itching with a sense of adventure, a desire to _do_ something, maybe—selling fruits and vegetables had become a bore, and they wanted a little _excitement_. Following this path of thought, they gathered again (with the exception of the waterbender, who was, to say the least, _busy_ with Princess Ankang), and decided to go to all the ends of the earth in search for new species of produce, to help more unfortunates.

Due to this, fifteen new species of produce were mass-introduced to the rest of the world, one of which was a strange berry that managed to survive arctic temperatures, which had previously been known to only one tiny clan of about ten waterbenders. Soon, their name began to spread worldwide, and their name became _almost_ as well-known as that of the Red Spirit, a ninja-assassin that had gone around worldwide, killing corrupt leaders, before being found out as being a high-ranking Fire Nation noble and sentenced to life imprisonment (though many around the world still hailed him and his work).

After a life of adventure, the merchants soon retired, and, as expected of any human, died, leaving their children and grandchildren with the task of continuing the _Yecai_ Society. And so, generation after generation, the _Yecai_ Society continued to make a name for itself, combating malnourishment, feeding the hungry, and bringing the joy of fruits and vegetables to the rest of the world.

However, a hundred years ago, that all changed.

With the beginning of the war, most of the members of the _Yecai_ Society had been conscripted into the war; most went willingly, believing that their experience trekking the world would aid them in the war.

But it was not so.

Soon, they were being killed off, one after another, with astonishing speed, leaving their children without mothers, or fathers. Disillusioned with this skewed sense of justice, the next generation of _Yecai_ heirs turned the society around into a purpose entirely different than that originally intended: they vowed to restore justice to the world, one merchant at a time.

Thus, any merchant who was found threatened, injured, killed, or otherwise harassed by the Fire Nation—or, eventually, anyone else—was subject to punishment. At first, they were light punishments—threats and scaring the culprits off—but as the war progressed and things got worse and worse, so did the punishments, up to the point where there were killings over a discontent merchant who had let the bargaining go a little too far and had been cheated out of a couple gold pieces.

After word of this got out, the plaque to the _Yecai _Society was removed from the Hall of Heroes at the North Pole, and they became an underground, secret society, wiped from history texts, the weight of their so-called "justice" out-balancing the good that they had done in earlier generations.

Gradually, as this vindictive generation died or was killed in the war, and their heirs succeeded, the _Yecai_ Society quieted down. The generation after the one hell-bent on justice was less violent, more pacifistic—they had seen what the war had done to the people, and saw how unreasonable they were becoming. They decided to keep the Society underground and dormant as long as they possibly could, to prevent further trouble; there was no need for them to destroy more lives, all over something as silly as fruits and vegetables.

But not all members thought that way. Some were still lying, waiting for the perfect moment to bring the Society back… And now, after thirty long years… the chance had finally arrived.

* * *

The cabbage merchant sat at the head of the table, hands clasped pensively before him, a cold look in his eyes.

He hadn't expected the other members to come so quickly; it appeared as if more people than he thought (though there was still a miserably small amount of people in the room) were becoming disillusioned from the war, and eager to revive the idea of "justice". When he saw that everyone had settled in their seats, he cast a gaze around the room, taking in the faces—most familiar, some not—and said in a soft, serious voice that nonetheless carried to the other end of the room, "Lettuce pray."

A moment of silence passed, disturbed only by the soft moving of lips as they recited their pledge and prayer. Then, one by one, they looked up, dark expressions on their face as they gazed at the cabbage merchant.

"Now, I want to begin by stating the reason why I called this meeting."

The others nodded.

"Today, many of my cabbages were squashed. 'Not a big deal,' you may think, before you realize that this was almost the _tenth_ time it had happened this month—and three or more times were from the same, insolent kid—the one with the ridiculous blue arrow on his head."

"Orange you talking about the Avatar?" asked another merchant.

The cabbage merchant spat. "Avatar or not, we will have to beet him for his wrongdoings. We cannot let him run rampant, claiming credit for saving the world, while he keeps us merchants oppressed, treating us as if we were unimportant, _mocking_ us."

"Hear, hear," chorused the other members.

"Yes, Apple?" said the cabbage merchant, nodding toward a woman who sat near the back; the members of the _Yecai _Society, ever since being driven underground, were now forced to call each other codenames based on whatever produce they sold.

Apple cleared her throat. "We'll need a plan. A good one, one that shallot fail."

Cabbage nodded. "I agree. We'll now open the floor to suggestions. Anyone?"

Rhubarb stood. "Perhaps we can send a shipova, disguised as a merchant ship, with dozens of soldiers or ninjas to take him out."

Apple shook her head. "No, that'll never work—the Fire Nation soldiers can't even capture him; how can we even hope to get him? Especially since we can't afford to hire those professional hit-men."

"Maybe we can get plum drug that'll send him into a deep sleep… then ambush him and cherry him away in the night?" suggested Apricot, but it was drowned out by Apple's laughter.

"And how do you expect us to get close enough to him to drug him?" she said, still laughing. "Sure, we may not _look _suspicious, but I'm sure one of his friends will wonder what we're doing if we get close and slip something into his drink. And most of us can't even bend; we have no way to defend ourselves against him or his companions if they decide to attack."

"Send me; olive!" said Asparagus excitedly, jumping out of his seat and waving his hand. "I can earthbend!"

"Grape," Apple said, rolling her eyes. "I saw the last time your earthbended—your aim is so terrible; you took out the person twenty feet away from your target, and you weren't even _aiming_ for him."

Asparagus sat down, dejected, as Apricot patted him on the shoulder and sent a dirty look in Apple's direction. "Well, if _you're_ so wise," she said bitterly, "then why don't _you_ suggest a plan?"

Apple rolled her eyes again, sighing in a falsely laborious way. "All right, if you _insist_. How about this: Durian the night, when he's sleeping, we'll take—"

"How's this any different from my sleeping drug plan?" Apricot said, and Apple glared at her.

"Don't interrupt me," she hissed, smiling smugly when Apricot recoiled. "Anyway, as he's sleeping, we'll take that girl who travels with him."

"Which one?" asked Rhubarb. Cabbage raised his eyebrows at him, curious.

"What do you mean, 'which one'? There's only one."

"No, another girl joined him recently—one that can earthbend, or so I've heard, and she's pretty good at it."

Apple sighed. "The waterbender, of course. It's obvious that he wishes that they were a pear; you can tell just by the way he looks at her. Anyway, we'll take her, and we'll leave him a few clues to lead him to wherever we're holding her hostage—some place without water, definitely—and, from the clues, he'll be able to marrow down the locations to just one, and there, we'll trap him—then kale him."

"Kale him?" repeated Apricot, aghast. "I don't think we should go _that_ far…"

Apple shook her head. "No, we'll have to. You'll notice that this Society has fallen into ruin lately—we have no funding, and despite all the members that we originally had, there are only seven of us gathered here today. We'll need to tell the Fire Nation that we have him hostage, then maybe take his staff and fig a way to send it to the Fire Nation as proof. He has a huge bounty on his head, you know, and the Fire Nation never specified whether they wanted him dead or alive. Alive, he can escape; dead, he cannot."

Cabbage nodded, a twisted smile spreading on his face. "I like that idea," he said, then added, "It'll be a warning to _anyone_ who dares abuse my cabbages again."

Apple smirked. "I'm glad you see it my way, Cabbage."

Cabbage sat up, straightening his back, a serious expression falling on his face again. "Now, we must not leek any information from this meeting, or it can all be ruined. We'll need to decide a date for the ambush, and we'll need to plan out the details. Apple, could you take notes?"

Apple nodded. She got up and got the paper, brush, and ink from the corner of the room, then returned, dipping the brush in ink and diligently holding it poised over the paper.

"Now… for the details," Cabbage began, and Apple began to jot down notes as he spoke, pausing every now and then to contribute an idea as the others around them spoke up, as well.

As Apple spoke, Asparagus turned to Apricot and said in a low voice, so that Apple couldn't hear, "I hate that peach."

Apricot nodded. "So do I, Aspy, so do I…"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I apologize for all the puns in the last segment. XD It's just that "lettuce pray" came to mind, and everything fell into place after that. Anyone who knows me somewhat well knows that I _love_ corny jokes, especially those involving puns, so I couldn't resist. Naturally, I don't think they'll be speaking so much in puns in later chapters (seeing how I'm running out of them), so don't expect much of it in the future.

Anyway, I'd love to see some feedback for this fic (especially constructive criticism), seeing how it's something different from what I normally write (I'm not much of an action/adventure type of person; at least, not writing-wise). Also, I'm not really satisfied with the way that the last scene came out, so if you'd like to share your opinions on it, please do.

And, for the curious: _yecai_ is 'cabbage' in Chinese (the round cabbages, not the long ones). :)

Thanks for reading!

_8/15/2006_


	2. Chance Encounter, Haggling, Abducted!

**The _Yecai_ Society**  
. helium lost .

**Author's Notes:** After a long, long wait (eek—almost six months?!), I'm finally updating this thing. XD Admittedly, I am very bad with multi-chaptered fics; I never manage to finish any of them… but this one deserves a chance! Really!

Anyway, this probably won't stay very true to the canon timeline, but you guys don't mind, right :)

* * *

**Chapter Two**  
_Chance Encounter; Haggling; Abducted!  
_

* * *

The Ba Sing Se marketplace was rife with its day-to-day sounds: Merchants were calling out from every corner, advertising their items and prices ("_Real _bison-fur bags! They're not rabbit fur, promise! A mere fifteen gold pieces each!" "In need of a good vase? Carefully hand-crafted vases here! Starting from five silver pieces!"), the _click-clack _of carriages being drawn on the cobblestones, the odd cross between a caw and a neigh of the ostrich-horses tethered to poles jutting out of the ground… The sky was blue; the sun was shining bright; there were virtually no clouds in the sky; and Katara was desolate. 

Katara sighed as she shook out the contents of her money bag. "I'm afraid we don't have much—just a few bronze coins… We might have to go hungry tonight; there's not enough time to find a quick-paying job." She frowned. "Maybe we can find a kind merchant who'll let us haggle—every coin counts now."

Sokka ran a hand through his hair. "Don't tell me we're going to have to eat vegetables _again_?"

Katara winced. "Looks like it—it's not like you can go hunting here, as the only animals here are in the zoo, and meat is ridiculously expensive… plus, the animals in the forest are either too fierce to hunt or too small to provide anything substantial… so I guess it's fruits and vegetables again."

Aang shrugged. "I don't mind—maybe I could whip up a fruit pie for us all. I used to have those all the time, and they were really good."

Toph rolled her eyes. "And where do you expect to get the flour? The eggs? The _oven_? Those things don't exactly come by cheap, you know."

Katara sighed and slipped the coins back into the bag. "C'mon guys, let's not argue now. It's okay—we'll be fine." She glanced around, then spotted a cluster of bright colors further along the road. "Looks like the fruits and vegetables section is over there—let's go take a look and see what we can find. Sound good?"

The others nodded and made their way through the crowd with Katara, pushing past people clustering at stands, waving around moneybags and yelling, offering prices half or a third of the original price. The streets were thick with the feeling of fabric clinging to fabric and with various smells that mingled together and threatened to choke them—the smell of matted ostrich-horse feathers, the smell of hair that hadn't been washed in days, the smell of fish being fried in the distance, the smell of fire and dirt.

As they continued to push through the crowd, Katara felt something slide across the lower region of her body and froze. Had someone just touched her _butt_? Of course, her mother had always told her about big cities and told her to be careful, but she'd never thought—She whirled around and prepared to waterbend a whip at whoever it was, but Sokka had beaten her to it, picking up the scraggly-looking guy by the collar and whipping out his boomerang.

"Hey, what do you think you're up to, eh? _What do you think you're doing?_" he hissed, waving his boomerang in the guy's face. Katara had to admit that she _did_ feel a twinge of pity for the guy—he was ashen-faced and looked as if he were about to cry, struggling in Sokka's grip. "That's my sister there, and if _anyone_ dares to lay a finger on her, they'll have to face my wrath. Now I want you to apologize and swear that you'll never do that again—to my sister, or, for that matter, anyone else's—or else…" He pressed the edge of his boomerang to the guy's throat. "…there will be _serious_ consequences."

"I—I'm sorry!" he sputtered. "I was just—well, I haven't eaten in days, and I was just trying to—'borrow' some coins! Honest! I didn't mean anything from it!"

Sokka rolled his eyes and let the guy fall to the ground. "As if stealing is any better—you disgust me. Go off and bother someone else, will you?"

The guy nodded and ran off into the crowd, disappearing into the hustle and bustle. Sokka sheathed his boomerang and ran a hand through his hair. "People these days," he muttered. "No sense of decency."

Katara sighed. "Sokka, don't you think that was a bit much? That guy looked scared out of his wits."

Sokka smirked. "I know."

Katara rolled her eyes. "C'mon, guys." She slipped a hand into her pocket. "The money bag's still here; he didn't manage to take it—thank goodness. We're almost there."

They pushed their way out of the throng and into another flowing current running through the fruit and vegetable vendors. Katara frowned as she looked around—harvests didn't seem to be very good; the fruits were small at best, and most of the vegetables looked slightly withered. It probably didn't help that today was a fairly hot day—and all this produce sitting out in the sun… She sighed. Well, it would have to do—it was probably better to eat food that was a tiny bit spoiled than nothing at all.

"Anything you guys want?" she asked.

Toph shrugged. "Whatever you pick is fine with me. Just not durians—I hate durians."

Katara furrowed her brow. "Durians? What are those?"

"Oh, just those fruits that you can smell from about a mile away. I don't really smell any, so I guess that's good. They used to have them all the time where I lived—I never understood what was so good about them, anyway. They smelled like week-old vomit."

Katara raised her eyebrows. "Durians, eh… I'll keep in mind to stay away from them." She turned to Aang and Sokka. "And you guys?"

Aang shrugged. "I don't really care either way."

Sokka frowned and crossed his arms. "A fruit made of meat would be nice."

Katara stuck out her tongue and winced. "Sokka, that's disgusting!" She turned around to glance at the carts again. "Well, there's a cart over there selling apricots; we should probably get some…"

She walked over to the cart and examined the fruit. A few of them were mushy and soft and didn't look too appetizing… She frowned, then picked one up that didn't look half bad. She pointed to it and looked at the vendor.

"How much?"

"One bronze coin each," she replied. Katara recoiled.

"One bronze coin _each_?" she said incredulously. "That's a bit much, isn't it? I wouldn't pay unless you sold six for one coin. They've been sitting out in the sun all day and you expect one bronze coin for _each _of them? That's ridiculous!"

The merchant shook her head. "All right, I'll give you a deal: One coin for two. Trust me, you won't find a better price anywhere. There's a guy down there with trying to sell each one of them for five bronze coins!"

Katara raised an eyebrow. "That's just insane. But I'm not paying unless I'm getting at least five for each bronze coin."

The merchant shook her head again, this time more vigorously. "No. Apricots are very hard to grow, you know, and it's very good for your health. It's a very good deal, you know. You won't find a better price anywhere, I guarantee it."

Katara frowned again and looked at the apricot, squeezing it gently between her fingers. Come to think of it, this one was fairly mushy, too. It wasn't that she didn't like mushy fruit—but these were a bit _too_ mushy for her tastes. "Hmm… Come to think of it, I don't like apricots very much anyway. Thanks, but no thanks—I'm going to look at the other carts." She placed the fruit down and began to walk away.

The merchant sighed, grit her teeth, closed her eyes, then called out after her, "All right, I'll give you four for one bronze coin. But you're killing me! I'm going to starve with prices like that!"

Katara zipped back to the cart with a sly smile on her face—walking away _always_ worked. "Great!" She shook a single bronze coin out onto her palm and gave it to the merchant, who handed her a bag containing four apricots in it. The merchant had a pained look on her face, but Katara was smiling widely as she inspected the four apricots, satisfied to see that they weren't the mushiest of the lot. "Thanks!"

Katara closed the bag and rushed back to Toph, Aang, and Sokka. "All right, I got us some apricots—not much, but it was still a pretty good price. We still have some money left over—I'm going to see if we can get anything else. Those apples over there look pretty good, come to think of it…"

She shoved the bag into Sokka's hands and warned him not to squash the apricots, then dashed over to the apple cart as Sokka, Aang, and Toph watched, amused.

Katara looked at the mounds of apples and noticed that they were all fairly small. She frowned and sniffed one. Well, at least it smelled good, and it looked fairly appetizing… She looked up and noticed the merchant watching her with a strange, sly smirk on her face.

"Can I help you, miss?" she said, then grinned. Katara raised an eyebrow, finding herself slightly unnerved by this merchant's strange behavior.

"Er—yeah. How much?"

The merchant rubbed her chin, then said, "I'll give you two for one bronze coin."

Katara sighed. "What is it with you merchants and ridiculously high prices these days? These apples are so tiny! I'm not paying unless I get at least eight for one bronze coin. I can eat these in one bite!"

The merchant laughed. "Then I'd suggest you take smaller bites, girl, because I'm not going to sell them for any more than three for one bronze coin. There—I lowered the price a little for you."

Katara sighed. "What about six for one coin? I think that's very fair."

The merchant shook her head, then widened her smirk, sending a chill up Katara's spine—there was just something about this woman that she didn't quite like. "Oh, you silly girl. Don't you know that these are the best apples in all of Ba Sing Se? They're grown in the finest orchards in the top ring, where all the rich aristocrats stay! Those silly aristocrats plant apple trees all over but only eat one or two apples from their orchards. Three for one coin is a very good price! You'll get a taste of royalty with every bite, I assure you." She grinned. "Just don't take bites that are too big—you might _choke_."

Katara shuddered. Something about the way she said 'choke' simply unnerved her. "Four for one. Or else I'm not buying at all."

The merchant sighed and tilted her head to the side. "All right, all right, you win. Four for one—though I must tell you that my children are going to starve because of you. How many do you want?"

Katara sighed and looked at the tiny apples. "I'll buy eight."

The merchant tossed eight apples into a bag, then held it out to Katara, who shook out the last two bronze coins from her bag and dropped them into the merchant's outstretched hands. She took the bag and sighed.

"Thank you for your business," the merchant said cheerfully, "and enjoy those apples—they might be your last."

Katara raised an eyebrow. Her last?

"Because the apple season is almost over," the merchant said hastily, and Katara nodded, giving her a weird look.

"Err—thanks." She turned and returned to the other three, who were gawking at the stand of strange, hybrid fruits.

"It's a cross between a strawberry and an orange! Here, take a sample—it's free!"

Sokka took the toothpick with the fruit speared on the end and inspected it. It, admittedly, _did_ smell like a strawberry, even though it looked like an orange… He took a tentative bite, swallowed, then rolled his eyes.

"These aren't hybrids!" he said, brandishing the toothpick at the merchant. "This is just a slice of orange dipped in strawberry juice! What a cheapskate."

The merchant glared at him. "Lies. These are fruits developed with the latest technology by the scientists and scholars of Ba Sing Se university. With this new hybrid technology, they can create totally new fruits by mixing ones we already know about. Do you like the taste of oranges? And also the taste of strawberries? Well, with hybrid technology, you can have _both_ in one! Astounding, isn't it! You, commoner, are simply too simple-minded to understand the complicated ways of new technology. A slice of orange dipped in strawberry juice! Very funny, mister, very funny."

Aang's eyes widened. "Wow! So I can have a grape that tastes like a lemon?"

The merchant nodded his head and laughed. "Of course! A gremon, maybe? Or maybe a lemape? Who knows? The possibilities are endless! But for a mere five gold coins, I can create a hybrid fruit _just for you_, available in just a couple days! Yes, these hybrid fruits grow amazingly fast, I'm pleased to say!"

Sokka rolled his eyes and pulled Aang away; Toph followed close behind. "Frauds, the lot of them. Let's go."

"You're missing out on a great scientific discovery!" the merchant called out from behind them. "This technology is priceless! Yet I'm letting you experience it for so cheap! _You're missing out!_"

"Well," said Katara as they were walking away, "I managed to get us eight apples, too. So we have eight apples and four apricots—works out nicely to two apples and one apricot for each of us. Okay, it's not much… but we're leaving Ba Sing Se tonight, and there should be something we can get in the forests around here… there _has_ to be."

* * *

Darkness settled across Ba Sing Se, cloaking it in a hazy black punctured only by the glittering of the night stars. The once-busy marketplace was now almost chillingly empty, with only some squashed produce staining the cobblestone ground and some empty carts and boxes littering the street. A quiet wind blew as a small group of cats darted across the street, led only by the light of the moon. 

One by one, the lights in the windows of each house began to extinguish, leaving the city even darker than before.

But the lights in one of the houses were still on—albeit dimmed to produce an eerie, cinematic effect. Six people were once again gathered around the same table.

"Status report," said Cabbage, fingers laced together under his chin. He glanced around the room—the members seemed to be in a better mood now from yesterday. Seemed like the play was in good shape—good.

Asparagus laid an object on the table, and the others peered through the gloom to look at it. It was a curious object—they hadn't really seen anything like it in Ba Sing Se.

But, of course, not many waterbenders are in Ba Sing Se, either…

"The girl's water pouch," Asparagus said proudly. "Luckily, she seemed to be too preoccupied with the thought of buying food to pause to check that her pouch was still there… and her brother!" He shuddered. "That boy is insane… I was real scared, I'll tell you, when he picked me up by the collar. But he didn't notice that I had the water pouch, I guess; he was too focused on the possibility of me trying to molest her or something to that effect."

Cabbage nodded. "Good, good. And Apricot? Apple?"

The two of them nodded.

"I sold her four apricots, each with some of the sleeping medicine in it. That should knock them out for maybe two hours or so."

"And I sold them eight apples, so if each of them eats two, they should be knocked out for another four, maybe five hours."

Cabbage nodded again. "All right, Rhubarb is tailing them now and making sure that they don't eat before they settle down to sleep for the night… not sure how he's doing it, but he said something about creating diversions. I don't know—Hopefully he'll manage to lead them away from any source of water, too, just in case the girl wakes up early. She may have already noticed that her pouch is gone—hopefully, she hasn't. As for what to do when we actually _capture_ the girl…"

Apple cleared her throat, and Cabbage nodded to her, letting her speak.

"Well, I managed to secure a cage from the zoo. Apparently, they had some cages left over that they planned on trashing anyway, saying that they were too weak to hold the animals in… So I got a few. They fit inside one another nicely, and we can keep her in the inner one. They may be weak for animals, but they're far too strong for humans to break—even if that other girl tries to pummel it with earthbending. She'll be locked in there, and we won't let her out until the Avatar agrees to come with us." She smirked. "Simple."

Cabbage nodded approvingly. "Good." He stood, then hit the table with his palm. "Meeting adjourned. Next meeting: Tomorrow night, same place, same time." He smirked maliciously. "I'm expecting to hear good news from all of you."

With that, the other five members strode toward the door, and Cabbage blew out the candles, plunging the room into a pitch-black darkness.

* * *

Katara yawned and stretched. The night was still early and the campfire was still blazing fairly strongly, but, for some reason, she just felt utterly tired. 

"I guess we'll just stay here for the night, yeah?" she said, and yawned again. Toph and Aang nodded, bleary-eyed, as Sokka polished his boomerang. "We've had a long day and we've traveled a lot—unfortunately there's no water around here, but those fruits were surprisingly juicy… Are you sure you don't want one, Sokka? There's still some leftover. They're really good!"

Sokka shook his head as he inspected his boomerang. "No thanks—I hate apricots and apples. I had a bite of each of them and they were disgusting. Tasted funny."

Katara shrugged. "Suit yourself." She yawned again. "Well, I'm going to go to sleep, then—looks like Toph and Aang are, too. Don't stay up too late, Sokka—we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay. Good night."

"Good night!"

Katara lay down on the sleeping mat, and Aang and Toph followed suit. Within minutes, the three of them had fallen into a deep sleep, their breathing deep and steady. Sokka sighed and sheathed his boomerang, then stared into the fire. The night was peaceful—all he could hear was the crackling of the fire and the sleeping trio's breathing. The rest of the forest was fairly quiet, punctuated only by the occasional cracking of a twig or creaking of a tree branch.

Sokka sighed again and rolled out his sleeping mat. It was rather boring to just sit here, doing nothing—he might as well sleep and get ready for tomorrow. He put out the campfire, then lay down and closed his eyes, letting himself drift into an uneasy sleep. There was just something nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite place it…

Moments after Sokka drifted into sleep, a shadowy figure crept into the clearing. He stole a few furtive glances around, then carefully lifted Katara and eased her out of her sleeping bag; she hung completely limp in his arms. He took a few more furtive glances around, then crept off almost soundlessly through the forest again. Katara groaned and he froze, then continued as she merely tilted her head to the other side. He let out a sigh of relief, then caught his foot on a protruding branch and cursed, then froze again. He heard Sokka move, then move again, and quickly ran off with Katara in his arms.

Back at the clearing, Sokka sat up and rubbed his eyes. He could've sworn he heard something weird… He looked around, first at the smoldering embers that were the last of the campfire, at Aang's sleeping figure, at Toph's sleeping figure, at—

Sokka froze.

"Katara?"

He looked around as a mounting feeling of fear began to tie up the pit of his stomach. There was nowhere to go from this clearing—no river, no lake; all that surrounded them was trees… He bit his lip.

"Katara!"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Ohhh, a cliffhanger! ;D Well, I hope I didn't disappoint; I wrote this pretty much in one sitting… Anyway, things are going to get much, much wilder from here on out… you just wait and see. :P 

As always, leave me feedback! I'd love to hear what you think.

_2/4/2007_


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